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About our Education Programs

Echoing the physically bold and visually lyrical aesthetic of our main stage, Lookingglass Education and Community Programs provide students with a distinctive, ensemble-driven, educational experience. We have been at the forefront of theatre education in Chicago since 1988 and last season reached over 15,000 students and community members with uniquely meaningful programming.

Lookingglass Studio

Lookingglass Studio programs teach story-centric theatre arts education that emphasizes collaboration, invention and transformation. The Lookingglass Studio is committed to the belief that early drama education fosters a lifelong love for the arts, instills confidence and self-respect in every student, and develops creative decision-making skills.

Designed for students aged 18 months to 18 years, our sequential classes and workshops provide an engaging opportunity for students to develop theatre skills while experiencing and creating stories from a variety of genres and sources. Class work builds students’ understanding and command of the actor’s tools (mind, body and voice), teaches methods of analysis and adaptation, and explores techniques for expression and performance. Students work on stories from classic books, myths, folk stories, fairy tales, poems, songs, local history and personal experience, as well as stories developed from their own imagination.

In the fun, nurturing environment of the Lookingglass Studio Program, each student receives focused, personal and empowering attention from our teaching artists. The ensemble-based structure of our classes encourages exploration, inspires invention, and celebrates collaborative creation. Lookingglass students also discover the importance of trust, heighten attention and focus skills, increase physical grace, enhance self-esteem and self-expression, and learn problem-solving strategies.

Lookingglass is devoted to providing a new adventure each week, so you never repeat the same story in a two year cycle!

Lookingglass Teaching Artists

Lookingglass is home to the most gifted and inspiring teaching artists in Chicago. They are working professionals from Chicago’s most vibrant theatre community and in addition to theatre education, they are experts in writing, directing, visual art, creative movement, music, puppetry and dance. Each Lookingglass teaching artist fulfills a 10 week apprenticeship before he or she is eligible to join our teaching roster. Thus, each of our artists learns the specific Lookingglass method—a story-centric process that emphasizes collaboration, invention and transformation. We want Lookingglass students to leave each class feeling changed, charged and empowered.

Lookingglass encourages every parent to get to know each of our fabulous teaching artists.

Lookingglass is Proudly Supported by;

Abbott Fund, Arie & Ida Crown Memorial; The Chicago Community Trust; Lloyd A. Fry Foundation; JPMorgan Chase; Illinois Arts Council; a state agency; James S. Kemper Foundation; Kraft Foods; The Northern Trust Company; The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; People's Energy; Polk Bros. Foundation; A.N. Pritzker Youth Foundation; Target Corporation; The Wrightwood Neighbors Conservation Association; and Bowen Printing.